Recent Articles

Once again, the major television networks have rejected a United Church of Christ ad that's all about...inclusiveness. Each of the Big Three networks, plus Fox's broadcast network, have rejected a paid advertisement from the United Church of Christ that bears the tagline, "God doesn't reject people. Neither do we." Viacom's gay-targeted cable channel, LOGO, has also rejected the ad, which conveys a message of inclusiveness, even depicting a gay couple. The UCC's "ejector-seat" ad speaks to the rejection of various categories of people by unnamed Christian churches -- a touchy subject for a nation that deems itself to be among the most God-fearing on Earth. It shows people who represent frequent targets of discrimination being ejected -- into the air -- from a church pew via a mechanism involving springboards hidden in the pews, controlled by an unseen party represented by an apparently white, male hand pressing a button. First to be ejected is an African-American woman trying to quiet...

By nominating Harriet Miers for a seat on the Supreme Court, President Bush has not simply named a member of his political staff -- and his onetime personal lawyer -- for one of the most powerful positions in the nation; he has named a staff member who was likely privy to the most confidential of material as other White House staffers planned their leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent. When columnist Robert Novak outed Plame in July 2003, Miers had just ascended to the post of deputy chief of staff for policy from a two-year stint as Bush's staff secretary, “the person in charge of all the paperwork that crosses the president's desk,” according to a description of Miers' duties published on the conservative Web site NewsMax last year. In an administration so ethically challenged, is it possible that Miers knew nothing of any shenanigans, be they leaking, weapons of mass destruction, or Ken Lay? The position she currently occupies is, after all, parallel to that...

The members of the Senate Judiciary Committee showed up in their Sunday best -- the men in the darkest of their dark suits, the whitest of their white shirts, and their most tastefully understated ties. The only woman on the panel wore pearls. With all of them on their best behavior, the senators played their parts as though they were based on a character sketch provided with the script of a teleplay. The first day of the confirmation hearings for the nomination of Judge John D. Roberts to the top spot on the high court had all the drama of a made-for-TV movie – which is to say, not much drama at all. Here, formulaic predictability substituted for passion. The presidency of John F. Kennedy is widely regarded as the nation's first televised presidency, one played perfectly by a telegenic First Couple. It took another 45 years to get the first made-for-TV Supreme Court hearings with a nominee as telegenic as Kennedy for chief justice, one who appeared, according to Senator Jeff...

If you thought that last weekend's simulcast right-wing confab, “Justice Sunday II,” was about the latest nomination to the Supreme Court, you'd be a little bit right. If you thought it was waged to demonize liberals while imparting a sense of aggrieved oppression to the white Protestants assembled in churches across the nation to watch the event on big-screen TVs, you'd be a little more right. In truth, however, the agenda is far larger than either of these; they are simply the means to an end. For the apocalyptic vision of right-wing leaders, a vision they are on their way to realizing, is nothing short of the overturning of Marbury v. Madison , the landmark case decided during the first administration of President Thomas Jefferson that established the Supreme Court's right of judicial review, the means by which the constitutionality of laws passed by the legislative branch is determined. Throughout the “Justice Sunday II” program, speakers from House...

It's hard to know what's more disturbing about President George W. Bush's nomination of Judge John Roberts for a seat on the Supreme Court: the man's sparse paper trail or the loose leaves he's scattered along the way. Either way, the nomination should give pause, not just to women or African Americans but to all Americans who hold dear the Bill of Rights. Let's begin with Roberts' women problem. As deputy solicitor general for George Bush Senior, Roberts presented two troubling briefs on matters having to do with abortion. In 1991, he served up the government's case before the Supreme Court in Rust v. Sullivan , arguing for the right to restrict the speech rights of family-planning organizations that receive public funding. The result of that decision upheld a gag rule on such organizations, denying them the right to mention abortion as one alternative to continuing a pregnancy. Note that we're not talking here about whether the organization in question can administer an abortion; we...